Which College Degrees Get the Highest Salaries?

Which College Degrees Get the Highest Salaries?

If you’re a college graduate, you likely went to school to pursue an important passion of yours.

But as we all know, what we major in has consequences that extend far beyond the foundation of knowledge we build in our early years. Any program we choose to enroll in also sets up a track to meet future friends, career opportunities, and connections.

Even further, the college degree you choose will partially dictate your future earning potential – especially in the first decade after school. If jobs in your field are in high demand, it can even set you up for long-term financial success, enabling you to pay off costly student loans and build up savings potential.

Data Backgrounder

Today’s chart comes to us from Reddit user /r/SportsAnalyticsGuy, and it’s based on PayScale’s year-long survey of 1.2 million users that graduated only with a bachelor degree in the United States. You can access the full set of data here.

The data covers two different salary categories:

Starting median salary: The median of what people were earning after they graduated with their degree.

In other words, the starting median salary represents what people started making after they graduated, and the rest of the chart depicts the range that people were making 10 years after they got their degree. Lower earners (10th percentile) are the lower bound, and higher earners (90th) are the upper bound.

College Degrees, by Salary

What college majors win out?

Here’s all 50 majors from the data set, sorted by mid-career median salary (10 years in):

Rank

Undergraduate Major

Starting Median

Mid-Career Median

% Change

#1

Chemical Engineering

$63,200

$107,000

69.3%

#2

Computer Engineering

$61,400

$105,000

71.0%

#3

Electrical Engineering

$60,900

$103,000

69.1%

#4

Aerospace Engineering

$57,700

$101,000

75.0%

#5

Economics

$50,100

$98,600

96.8%

#6

Physics

$50,300

$97,300

93.4%

#7

Computer Science

$55,900

$95,500

70.8%

#8

Industrial Engineering

$57,700

$94,700

64.1%

#9

Mechanical Engineering

$57,900

$93,600

61.7%

#10

Math

$45,400

$92,400

103.5%

#11

Physician Assistant

$74,300

$91,700

23.4%

#12

Civil Engineering

$53,900

$90,500

67.9%

#13

Construction

$53,700

$88,900

65.5%

#14

Finance

$47,900

$88,300

84.3%

#15

Management Information Systems (MIS)

$49,200

$82,300

67.3%

#16

Philosophy

$39,900

$81,200

103.5%

#17

International Relations

$40,900

$80,900

97.8%

#18

Chemistry

$42,600

$79,900

87.6%

#19

Marketing

$40,800

$79,600

95.1%

#20

Geology

$43,500

$79,500

82.8%

#21

Political Science

$40,800

$78,200

91.7%

#22

Accounting

$46,000

$77,100

67.6%

#23

Architecture

$41,600

$76,800

84.6%

#24

Information Technology (IT)

$49,100

$74,800

52.3%

#25

Business Management

$43,000

$72,100

67.7%

#26

Agriculture

$42,600

$71,900

68.8%

#27

History

$39,200

$71,000

81.1%

#28

Communications

$38,100

$70,000

83.7%

#29

Film

$37,900

$68,500

80.7%

#30

Nursing

$54,200

$67,000

23.6%

#31

Journalism

$35,600

$66,700

87.4%

#32

Geography

$41,200

$65,500

59.0%

#33

Art History

$35,800

$64,900

81.3%

#34

Biology

$38,800

$64,800

67.0%

#35

English

$38,000

$64,700

70.3%

#36

Forestry

$39,100

$62,600

60.1%

#37

Anthropology

$36,800

$61,500

67.1%

#38

Health Care Administration

$38,800

$60,600

56.2%

#39

Psychology

$35,900

$60,400

68.2%

#40

Graphic Design

$35,700

$59,800

67.5%

#41

Sociology

$36,500

$58,200

59.5%

#42

Hospitality & Tourism

$37,800

$57,500

52.1%

#43

Drama

$35,900

$56,900

58.5%

#44

Criminal Justice

$35,000

$56,300

60.9%

#45

Nutrition

$39,900

$55,300

38.6%

#46

Music

$35,900

$55,000

53.2%

#47

Interior Design

$36,100

$53,200

47.4%

#48

Spanish

$34,000

$53,100

56.2%

#49

Education

$34,900

$52,000

49.0%

#50

Religion

$34,100

$52,000

52.5%

Based on this data, there are a few interesting things to point out.

The top earning specialization out of college is for Physician Assistants, with a median starting salary of $74,300. The downside of this degree is that earning potential levels out quickly, only showing a 23.4% increase in earning power 10 years in.

In contrast, the biggest increases in earning power go to Math, Philosophy, Economics, Marketing, Physics, Political Science, and International Relations majors. All these degrees see a 90% or higher increase from median starting salary to median mid-career salary.

In absolute terms, the majors that saw the highest median mid-career salaries were all along the engineering spectrum: chemical engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, and aerospace engineering all came in above $100,000. They also generally had very high starting salaries.

As a final note, it’s important to recognize that this data does not necessarily correlate to today’s degrees or job market. The data set is based on people that graduated at least a decade ago – and therefore, it does not necessarily represent what grads may experience as they are starting their careers today.

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Author

Jeff is the Editor-in-Chief of Visual Capitalist, a media site that creates and curates visuals on business and investing. He has been quoted or featured on Business Insider, Forbes, CNBC, MarketWatch, The Huffington Post, The World Economic Forum, and Fast Company.